With my fears aroused by Andy’s parting words (“this Saturday’s was a stinker – looks like I got out in the nick of time!!!”), I went for it all guns blazing and actually found it not as bad as I feared. Don’t expect me to talk about my times, because I do the crossword in spare minutes (or hours, sometimes!) over meals etc. But, looking at the leaderboard, I see that at the time of writing, the 100th best time was over 28 minutes compared with 13 and 16 minutes the previous two Saturdays – so it does look like it was harder than usual.
FOI was 22dn, LOI was 11dn … the answer seemed obvious but I struggled to parse the clue. My clue of the day was 5 down. Lovely disguise!
Now let’s see if I can get the formatting right …
Clues are reproduced in blue, with the definition underlined. Anagram indicators are bolded and italicised. Then there’s the answer IN BOLD, followed by [the parsing of the wordplay]. (ABC)* means ‘anagram of ABC’, {deletions are in curly brackets}.
Across
1 Brother knowledgeable about the setter’s sort of music [4,2,4]
UPON MY SOUL: UP ON [knowledgeable about] MY [the setter’s] SOUL [sort of music].
6 Tip from agent to stay close to violent criminal [4]
THUG: T [tip from {agen}T], HUG [stay close to].
9 Pensioner, perhaps, on Hebridean island [7]
RETIREE: RE [on] TIREE [Hebridean island].
10 Root, at first needing juice, in rare source of bark [7]
BASENJI: BASE [root] N J I [at first N{eeding} J{uice} I{n}]. On edit: I didn’t realise basenjis have a peculiar vocal tract meaning they yodel rather than bark, so I missed the joke in the definition. Thanks Keriothe.
12 One ostrich-like Greek character crossing sand, concealing head [5]
NANDU: NU [Greek character, “crossing”] AND [{s}AND, concealing head].
According to Wikipedia, rheas are large flightless birds, native to South America, related to the ostrich and emu. Apparently nandu is the common name in many European languages. First time I’ve met the word. Could just as well have been MANDU for all I knew!
13 Rush to get on, achieving target [9]
DARTBOARD: DART [Rush] BOARD [to get on].
14 Dispersing sin abroad — why the just prevail [3,2,1,5,4]
WIN BY A SHORT HEAD: (SIN ABROAD WHY THE)*.
17 Legendary Englishman busy making lots of runs, keeping wicket [4,11]
DICK WHITTINGTON: DICK [busy = detective], HITTING TON [making lots of runs], keeping W [wicket].
20 Large bats that sing at day’s end? [4,5]
LAST THING: L [large] (THAT SING)*.
21 Shooting home to meet friend [2,3]
IN BUD: IN [home] BUD [friend].
23 What to carry back with a vital pipe [7]
TRACHEA: EH [what?] CART [carry], all reversed, with A.
24 Female climber’s unending stocking trouble [7]
LILLIAN: LIAN{a} “stocking” ILL [trouble].
25 Stone axes: small number returned [4]
ONYX: X Y [axes of a graph], NO [small number], all reversed.
26 Different MPs readily listen to me [4,2,4]
READ MY LIPS: (MPS READILY)*
Down
1 International organisation split about supplier of mutton that’s not fresh [9]
UNRENEWED: UN [international organisation] REND [split] about EWE [supplier of mutton].
2 Work can be engaging [3,2]
OPT IN: OP [work] TIN [can].
3 Component of world trade [7,6]
MERCURY SWITCH: MERCURY [world] SWITCH [trade]. Nicely disguised definition!
4 Singular tinkles having function in clocks [7]
SPEEDOS: S [singular] PEES [tinkles] with DO [function] inside. It took me a while to get past the idea that Speedos are swimming costumes! Originally I was trying to do something with S WEES, to no avail.
5 Eco tour might at first be arranged [7]
UMBERTO: (TOUR M{ight} BE)*
In this case, “eco” doesn’t mean “green”, although the surface of the clue neatly led me in that direction! According to Wikipedia, Umberto Eco [5 January 1932 – 19 February 2016] was an Italian novelist, literary critic, philosopher, semiotician, and university professor. He is best known internationally for his 1980 novel Il nome della rosa [The Name of the Rose].
7 Briefly shed remaining shift towards nine o’clock? [4,1,4]
HANG A LEFT: HANGA{r} [briefly, shed] LEFT [remaining]. [Visualise 9 o’clock on the steering wheel].
8 Group equipped to breathe in water through the mouth [5]
GUILD: [sounds like “gilled”].
11 Pretty individual standing in street — opposite side [13]
SUBSTANTIALLY: SUB [individual standing in] ST [street] ANTI [opposite] ALLY [side, as in “side with”, I guess]. Meaning “Pretty”, as in “pretty much”.
15 Mean to collect tax once monthly — ultimately vital [9]
NECESSARY: NEAR [mean] Y [monthly, ultimately] collecting CESS [tax].
Chambers says “cess” is a tax or local rate in UK. New to me.
16 Rows we hear with visitors on doorstep? [4-5]
DING-DONGS: As in ding-dong battles, I guess. Also sounds of doorbells.
18 Border, not left bolted down: thereby flatter? [7]
IMITATE: {l}IMIT [border, not left] ATE [bolted down]. “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”.
19 Sometimes on, sometimes off, like a duffel coat? [7]
TOGGLED: two meanings.
20 Form of gambling not tolerated after shrinking returns [5]
LOTTO: hidden in “nOT TOLerated” reversed.
22 Russian cakes and odd helpings of Belgian pie [5]
BLINI: odd letters of B{e}l{g}i{a}n {p}i{e}. Actually, a pancake, according to Chambers.
I thought a lot of the clues were very clever – for instance, ‘ding-dongs’ was a real classic. I had never heard of ‘nandu’, but if you wait for all the crossers it’s not hard.
I would like to offer congratulations and a warm welcome to our newest blogger. Due to the much larger number of puzzles we now cover, recruiting is not as easy as it used to be. I thought the blog was excellent, and I’m sure you’ll agree.
Welcome, Bruce, and thanks for taking this on; this first blog is picture-perfect, and I’m looking forward to future ones.
And if I may, I’d like to thank Vinyl for taking over from Andy; it’s a relief to know the blog will continue in good hands.
This took me the best part of Saturday afternoon and flowed like treacle. But I finally finished on 24ac LILLIAN – my current wife’s name but she only has two Ls not three.
Another brown dog 10ac BASENJI was in recent use but I failed to recall it.
DNK NANDU. Didn’t think much of 2dn OPT IN.
COD 16dn DING-DONGS WOD READ MY LIPS
Today’s was finished before breakast – thank the Lord.
Edited at 2017-02-11 09:25 am (UTC)
I don’t come across unknown words all that often these days, at least in the daily cryptic – but nandu was, to me. As Jack says, the cluing was helpful. Speedos are swimming costumes to me, but I did clock the connection eventually. Basenjis may be rare in the flesh, but they are as common as anything lately, here in crosswordland.
Overall I thought this a very fine crossword, somewhat on the hard side, but given the way our esteemed new blogger has dealt with it I’m sure he will have no undue difficulties in future.
28:28 for this. Like jackkt, I’m looking at at now and wondering why it seemed so hard.
Not much recollection of the solving process other than finishing with the slightly tenuous but brilliant HANG A LEFT and THUG, which for some reason was my last one in.
When BASENJI came up the other day and several people hadn’t heard of it, it occurred to me to mention that it was bound to come up again at some point with a reference to its tendency not to bark. But I didn’t.
I had DASHBOARD initially at 13ac, which slowed me down a bit on 5dn.
I wondered about the definition of BLINI: I wouldn’t call them cakes, but it’s hard to argue that a pancake isn’t a type of cake.
Welcome, Bruce, and thank you.
Thought this puzzle was excellent—certainly the toughest one I’ve successfully finished in recent memory. I spent all day on it, on and off, so I can’t give a time. In the end I could parse it all, just about—I only had a vague memory of “cess”—so it felt very fair.
LOI the crossers of NECESSARY and ONYX (I *always* seem to have to biff and work backwards before I see that particular “axes” wordplay.) Enjoyed the DING-DONGS!
Edited at 2017-02-11 11:14 am (UTC)
I’d have thought Focault’s Pendulum was the book Signor Eco was best known for. There again, it’s the only one I’ve tried to read.
Welcome Bruce brnchn to the TFTT volunteer masochists society.
Or am I now completely befuddled?
I got HANG A LEFT wrong thinking it was HAND A’ WEST – missing the shift part of the definition and biffing in HAND A.
And also, can anyone with knowledge of how languages evolve please tell me why “hang a left”? Does it have any particular point that “turn left” doesn’t? And who uses it?
Ong’ara,Nairobi,
Kenya.
MJS
Edited at 2017-02-12 07:14 pm (UTC)
I am still a bit puzzled about the World definition- even after reading the helpful comment from another commentator. Are all the planets “worlds” for crossword purposes?
D
world /wûrld/
noun
1. The earth
2. The earth and its inhabitants
3. The universe
4. The system of things
5. The present state of existence
6. Any analogous state
7. Any planet or heavenly body
{and then another 16 definitions}
Welcome to the fold Bruce, and may I compliment you on your choice of format!
(We photocopy the reprinted crossword from The Australian newspaper which is already a month later than the Times original , and solve at leisure ) . Particularly liked 8d ‘guild ‘, and we were surprised to find the legendary Dave Witherspoon was unknown to everyone else.
FOI – 1D unrenewed
LOI – 7D hang a left
COD – 8D guild